I am concerned because we have elected a billionaire, authoritarian egomaniac and pathological liar to be President of the United States. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, yet he convinced his supporters that he truly cared about them, understood their problems, would “drain the swamp ” (government) of lobbyists and Wall Street elites, and he was the only one that can fix America’s problems (because he is rich and smart).

I am concerned because during his presidential campaign he refused to adhere to historical protocols for presidential candidates. Unlike his predecessors, he refused to release past years of tax returns; he refused to have a medical evaluation done at a valid medical facility to determine his medical condition (he is 70 years old); and he threatened to “lock up” his opponent if he was elected.

I am concerned because he ran the nastiest, most unprofessional presidential campaign in history. His campaign speeches and actions clearly defined him as a racist, xenophobe, narcissist, misogynist and extremely vindictive person.

I am concerned because in the past five weeks we have gotten a preview of exactly what kind of president Donald Trump will be. I believe he did not really understand what the job of being President was about until his first meeting with President Obama. His transition has been like a television show, parading candidates through Trump tower to kneel at the feet of the “Don.” His transition has been extremely disruptive, causing international tension by his uncontrolled actions, loose lips and tweeting. He has caused the stock prices of major American companies to drop due to his vindictive comments and tweets toward those that disagreed with him. He has not been receiving the daily security briefings because he is a “smart guy.” During the time when he should be preparing to be the President, he takes time off to do a “victory tour.” This tour provides him with a venue to get the adulation and worship he so desperately needs and an opportunity to shape the thinking of his supporters by feeding them more lies and false claims.

I am concerned because he has filled his cabinet with Wall Street billionaires and millionaires, “oil and gas industry” friends and ex-military hawks. Most are unqualified for the departments they will lead because prior to their new roles, they fought against what they will now lead.

I am concerned because the House and Senate Republicans have been the “Party of No” for the past eight years of President Obama’s administration, but now they are more than willing to help Trump “make America great again.” They now see the opportunity to implement their agenda to repeal the Affordable Care Act (taking insurance away from over 20 million people), reform Social Security (reducing benefits for the elderly), privatizing Medicare (taking away Medicare so elderly can buy their own insurance in the market, with a voucher to help pay for it), and killing Medicaid, CHIPS, and food stamps for the poor. Of course all these actions come with a tax cut for the wealthy.

I am concerned because all the societal safety nets and protections we have put in place for the American people, thanks to Democrats, are now in jeopardy of being discarded by Trump’s administration and the GOP in the name of corporate profits.

Most of all I am concerned because our election was hijacked and manipulated by Russia and Vladimir Putin to help get Trump elected. This hijacking was known months ago but because of our current state of politics, it was not made public. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Majority Leader of the Senate, threatened to make it a partisan attempt to impact the election if the information was released. The Majority Leader of the Senate chose loyalty to his Republican party over the security of America and this threat to our democracy. He was rewarded by Trump when he picked McConnell’s wife to be Secretary of Transportation in his new administration. Now that this information has been made public, McConnell is suddenly on board with investigation of the hijacking. While this hijacking is now getting a lot of attention, it is not enough. This is serious. We were attacked by Russia to influence the outcome of our democratic elections and undermine our democracy.

We need to do more…NOW! The world is watching how we respond to this attack.

The latest breaking news is the Washington Post article about Russia’s interference in the presidential election. They referred to a secret assessment by the CIA where they concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just undermining confidence in the U.S. electoral system.

Assuming this is all true, this is a historical moment like none before in America. The legitimacy of our government and democracy are in question. We have a foreign country that has clearly undermined our electoral system and influenced the outcome of the election toward their favored candidate, which won. The scope and magnitude of this interference by a foreign country nullifies the validity of this election.

The timing of these findings provide one window-of-opportunity to resolve this issue. On December 19, each state will send their Electoral College electors to their state capitol to cast their vote for their candidate. Prior to that date all of the Electoral College electors should be assembled and receive the CIA’s briefing on this interference by Russia. After they have all the facts about this interference and after having a full month preview of Trump’s behavior, they can make a more informed decision on how to vote. Are they going to be true American “patriots” and vote for what’s best for their country or are they going to be a “political party over country” partisan hack and vote for what’s best for their party? I can’t see Trump supporters changing their votes, regardless of the facts, because they only believe what Trump tells them.

Right, wrong, or indifferent, a cloud of doubt has been embedded in the minds of Americans reference the legitimacy of this election. The level of interference by Russia and the widespread use of voter disenfranchisement is more than enough to deem this election illegitimate.

The only fair way to resolve this is to have a re-election using only auditable methods of voting (preferably paper votes) and a resolution for those large number of voters that were unfairly disenfranchised previously.

During an interview with Anderson Cooper (CNN), former Labor Secretary Robert Reich was asked what he thought about Trump responding to things he heard or saw on television. His answer is exactly what we all want to say to Donald Trump about his personal Twitter attacks and their impact.

Donald Trump in his true form is a marketer, con-artist and snake-oil salesman. He will say and do anything to make a sale, especially when selling himself. We had a saying where I used to work: “How do you know when a salesman is lying? When his lips are moving!” Add in a giant ego to the lying and you have Donald Trump.

This all became very obvious during his presidential campaign. During his rallies he refused to follow a script because he likes to just make stuff up as he goes. Once he had his supporters fired up by spewing his typical racist-based campaign rhetoric, his enormous need for adoration kicked in and the snake-oil salesman took over, spouting outrageous lies and convincing his supporters that “only he can fix this, believe me!”

The best example of his outrageous lies was when he claimed, “I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me!” Really. What normal person with an ounce of common sense would believe him? None, except we are talking about Trump supporters here. They believe anything he says, regardless of how irrational, offensive and disgraceful it is.

How did this shameful behavior and lying impact him? He was rewarded with the most esteemed job in the world – President of the United States.

That’s right, he was able to convince over 60 million voters that a greedy, pussy grabbing, racist, narcissist, seventy year-old billionaire feels the pains and struggles of the common people and that only he could fix it, because he is just so rich, so smart and so dedicated to “making Trump America great again!”

The greatest CON job of all time.

His fellow Republicans and surrogates defended his lying and behavior as just campaign rhetoric and devices to get elected. Well, fast forward four weeks and guess what? Even though he is now President-Elect, nothing has changed. He is still making false statements. The latest example of this was this tweet:

Of course this tweet created a firestorm of responses since it is a known fact that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over 2.5 million votes.

When the President-Elect of the United States makes an accusation that millions of people voted illegally, he better be prepared to back it up with verifiable proof. Not Donald Trump. He just moves on and puts the burden on his critics to disprove his accusation and his surrogates to defend him.

And how have the Republicans and his surrogates defended him? Not by providing facts to support his accusation, but by rallying behind the extremely stupid excuse and talking point that “facts simply don’t exist anymore.”

Paul Ryan (Republican Speaker of the House): “It doesn’t matter to me. He won the election. Who cares what he tweeted…”

Kellyanne Conway (Trump Campaign Manager): Claimed that Trump’s habit of tweeting inaccurate and inflammatory statements and lies was indeed “presidential behavior” simply by the virtue of him being the President-Elect. That’s right, when the President-Elect lies, it doesn’t matter because he is the President-Elect.

So in defense of President-Elect Donald Trump’s pathological lying, the Republicans are trying to normalize lying.

Normalization refers to social processes through which ideas and actions come to be seen as “normal” and “natural” in everyday life. – Wikipedia

Rather than holding him accountable for being so dishonest, even to his own supporters, we all should accept his lies as truths just because he is the President-Elect.

I wonder what all the countries of this world are learning about our new President-Elect. I would tend to guess they are saying he doesn’t know what he’s doing, has a terrible temperament, is very vindictive, and not honorable because he lies about everything.

So much drama and he doesn’t even take charge for another month.

*Note: Even more lies have surfaced since I started writing this post. If I tried to keep pace with his lies I would never finish this post…

Forget about getting ready to take over the job of President, Donald Trump couldn’t wait to feed his ego and travel to Indiana to take credit for saving 1,000 jobs (actually 800) at Carrier from being sent to Mexico. Of course he and Mike Pence (Governor of Indiana) gave them $7 million in tax relief to keep them there, to be paid by Indiana tax payers.

Yes, that is great news for those 800 workers in Indiana.

However, what he hasn’t talked about is the 1,300 jobs that Carrier is still sending to Mexico. A major failure on his part.

During his campaign Donald Trump denounced the Washington establishment and elites that run the government. As a Washington outsider he promised to “drain the swamp” of these professional politicians and lobbyists and bring in other outsiders to solve America’s woes. As only he can do.

Now that he is President-Elect Trump, he has to fill all these critical jobs with qualified people that will be responsible for managing their specific areas of responsibility and helping him function as President.

Since Trump is a billionaire Washington outsider with no experience as an elected public servant, he does not have connections with people that are qualified to fill these critical positions. So what is he doing? He is appointing other billionaires to help fix the system that made them billionaires. He is filling his cabinet with more lobbyists and his old political cronies and Republican retreads from years past that he has supported. Their primary qualification is that they had to be Trump supporters and willing to suck up to him.

Well, so much for “draining that swamp” promise. More broken promises to come…

Telling it as it is since 2013 - Living in Edinburgh, Scotland with my wonderful family and friends trying to live with Agoraphobia, Psychosis, M.E (Chronic Fatigue), PTSD and Fibromyalgia - "Life is Hard, don't make it worse" - Enjoy the Journey with me, follow me, and I will follow back. Thanks :-) Shauny

This site is about everything from my philosophy on life to the little things that make me laugh. IIt is about living, and breathing, and pausing long enough to take it all in. I hope it makes you laugh, sometimes makes you cry, but always makes you want to come back for another visit. It is your words, and your likes that inspire me to keep writing. And it is through my writing that you have a very large window to my soul. Relax awhile, read, and enjoy!